15-Minute Walk For Heart Disease Prevention

Besides diet, exercise also play an important role in keeping one fit and healthy. The general consensus is that people should have 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. Running, swimming, or sports like basketball, football, tennis, table tennis are all good forms of exercise. But for older folks or people who are not suitable for these activities, walking can be a good way to keep fit, too.

Studies using pedometer showed that people who achieve more steps throughout the day are less likely to be overweight, and are at a much lower risk of developing diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, Type-2 diabetes, and more. A pedometer is a small, beeper-sized device that counts the number of steps achieved.

The benefits of walking are often ignored because it is not regarded by most people as an aerobic exercise. The definition of aerobic exercise is one that stimulates the heart and respiratory rates to pump additional oxygen to muscles. Even a slow stroll does that. The faster one walks, the more aerobic the activity. Increased cardiovascular, respiratory, and circulatory operations mean nutrients go where they must to support the exercise. Energy is expensed rather than stored, and the organs, muscles, and bones are strengthened. 

A recent French 12-year study reported that just 15 minutes of moderate daily physical activity such as walking is associated with a 22 percent lower risk of death for people over 60 years of age. The study was conducted by researchers from Jean Monnet University in Saint-Etienne, France.

Walking 15 minutes may not lead to weight loss, though. For someone who performs strength-training exercises, eats healthily and leads an active life, walking 15 minutes daily can play a role in weight loss. For people who are lack of physical activity and adopts a high-calorie diet, daily 15-minute walks would unlikely lead to weight loss. But walking 15 minutes can still help burn some calories and maintain weight, especially if walking is the only form of exercise one has. Meanwhile, walking can also strengthen muscles, lungs and heart, and improve bone density and relieve stress.

Anyway, there may by a slight advantage if one can walk for 45 minutes or more. The body replaces the burned glycogen (sugar) either through the calories one eats or through breaking down some stored fat. If one eats more calorie than the body needs, it stores it right back again as fat.

If one has difficulty to set aside 45 minutes or even 30 minutes a day for walking, he or she can begin with 15-minute walk a day. Once the 15-minute walk habit is established, he or she can then increase the duration by another 15 minutes to make it a 30-minute walk or two 15-minute walks. In this way, people can get closer to the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate aerobic activity.